Metamorphosis
by talenx5220
Summary: Rand has been changed. He is once more the boy he was before that fateful Winternight. But will Rand al'Thor's strength be enough to defy the Dragon Reborn's enemies?


I will keep on writing this, if I get reviews!! yummy reviews, hahahaha  
  
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"Do you understand?"  
  
Novice Sareta nodded silently. Her hands clutched her white skirts.  
  
Elayne sighed. She remembered being in awe of Aes Sedai when she was a novice, but this was ridiculous! The yellow-haired, brown-eyed girl in front of her was terrified.  
  
"Do it, then," Elayne said as gently as she could.  
  
Instead of calming the novice, the patient tone seemed to infuriate her. Sareta raised her hands abruptly in a sharp motion and Elayne backed hastily away as surprisingly thick flows of Air and Water suddenly swirled all around. A fierce wind suddenly started howling in the room.  
  
Some of the other novices, seated around the room, shrieked and began clambering for cover under the tables as the wind grew stronger. Others stared, amazed, at the flows with their mouths open and their eyes wide. A few started attempting to recreate the flows, and soon the chamber was similar to a hurricane.  
  
"Stop!" shouted Elayne, quickly weaving a wall of Air between Sareta and the other students, shielding them from the storm. "Sareta, I said - "  
  
As quickly as it had appeared, the wind quieted and vanished. The flows winked out.  
  
"I did as you asked," Sareta said calmly, as if she had done nothing wrong.  
  
"You did," Elayne admitted. She tried to fix her hair, which was in hopeless disarray. "But I did not mean for you to do it so . . . strongly."  
  
She tried to hide her shock. The girl was as strong as Nynaeve, if not stronger. It was almost unthinkable.  
  
As Sareta went to sit back down among the novices, who were emerging from cover, Elayne resumed her position at the front of the room, still shaking her head. "Now. After Air and Water, the next Power to master is Fire." She channeled a small ball of flame and made it dance from fingertip to fingertip, exaggerating the flows so the students could see. She smiled to herself, thinking how she and Egwene had practiced this in the novice chambers late at night, so no one saw, when they were both being trained.  
  
The novices were now channeling their own shaky spheres of Fire, watching their teacher's weaving. Sareta seemed almost bored, channeling the ball from finger to finger seemingly without any effort. Elayne frowned. What was -  
  
"You make yours so small, though. I bet I could make one much bigger."  
  
Elayne whirled, startled, to face the sound of the voice. There was Rand, looking amused, leaning casually against the edge of the doorway. Framed by the light from outside, he looked like a god.  
  
"Rand?" She stared disbelievingly. He remained in the doorway, his amusement seemingly deepening, convincing her that he was not a vision.  
  
Abandoning her class of novices, Elayne ran to the door and flung her arms around him. He felt solid and real within her arms - so she was not dreaming.  
  
Rand stumbled back a step, laughing. His arms went around her, and for the first time in a long while, she felt safe.  
  
"What in the Light are you doing in Salidar?" she mumbled into his chest, though she didn't really care. "And why did you mask the bond?"  
  
"I wanted to surprise you," he replied. "Doesn't a Warder have leave to come back to his Aes Sedai once in a while?" He grinned and said in a softer tone, "One of his Aes Sedai."  
  
Frowning, Elayne grabbed his arms and pushed him away to arms' length. She studied him intently.  
  
"Rand - you've changed," she said, startled. The bond was still masked, and she had to study his face to know what he was feeling.  
  
His blue-gray eyes were warm and filled with laughter, not hard and cold as she had seen them last. His stance was less tense and alarmed, and more relaxed and straight.  
  
This was the boy she had met that first time in Caemlyn, in her mother's palace. The innocent, caring boy who had never had to kill, had never seen people die, was not weighted down by duty.  
  
The boy who she had thought was gone forever.  
  
She threw her arms around him again, vowing never to leave his side. "It's you," she said, muffled again. "It really is you. I knew you'd come to your senses. All that nonsense about 'being hard for the sake of the world' - "  
  
"Sorilea and Cadsuane locked me up and hammered all that 'nonsense' out of my head," Rand sighed. "Aviendha, Alanna, Verin, and a few other sisters went along with them and shielded me." He shook his head in disbelief. "You'd think they'd show more respect for the Dragon Reborn."  
  
"They - " Elayne was speechless, but soon recovered. "Well. At least someone had the sense to do it."  
  
"Yes, well," Rand said, not quite agreeing. He looked over Elayne's shoulder, suddenly grinning. "Elayne, your class - "  
  
Elayne followed his stare and blushed hotly. They had gathered around the door and were staring, whispering and giggling, nudging one another with elbows and shoulders. All except Sareta. That blonde-haired novice stared, mouth pinched as if angry. Her eyes certainly were.  
  
"You are dismissed," she told them, a bit harsher than she would normally have been. What is that Sareta angry about now? She was the most disagreeable novice Elayne had ever taught, strength or no strength. That was for sure.  
  
They quickly came to their senses and moved, curtsying one by one. "The Light shine on you, Elayne Sedai." Elayne noticed that there was no curtsy and no blessing from Sareta who shot her a scathing glare and hurried from the room.  
  
Irritated at the novice's disrespect, Elayne stared after her with a frown, but quickly forgot the matter as Rand made a gateway. On the other side was her own chamber. "Shall we - "  
  
Elayne didn't even wait for him to voice the suggestion. She practically leaped through the portal and was followed by Rand, laughing.  
  
The gateway closed behind them.  
  
* * *  
  
Moiraine Damodred looked in the dark shopwindow as she passed, and grimaced.  
  
She could not stop half-jumping when she saw a different face instead of hers. But it was necessary. The Mask of Mirrors was one of the most useful weaves Moiraine had learned from Lanfear.  
  
At least she had made it to Salidar alive. The world had become a dangerous place.  
  
A more dangerous place, she amended, with a sense of irony.  
  
There was the Little Tower, as it was called. She almost smiled at that. What an accurate name. She suspected Sheriam had had something to do with that.  
  
Moiraine stepped cautiously into the common room, and frowned.  
  
A group of sisters was sitting around a table, discussing something. Romanda, Lelaine, Sheriam - another woman whose face she could not see. Another Aes Sedai, most certainly.  
  
But then the woman turned, and Moiraine received a shock. It was Egwene al'Vere.  
  
What in the Light was she doing there?  
  
"Egwene?" Moiraine said incredulously, and the girl turned, eyebrows raised in surprise.  
  
Light, she had changed. Self possession was all around her, cool calm. An air of command. What had happened to her?  
  
"Who are you, to address the Amyrlin Seat so?" Sheriam asked sharply. "Jump, girl, and show her the proper respect." She couldn't have sensed that Moiraine could channel. Another handy trick from Lanfear.  
  
But the Amyrlin? Egwene?  
  
What in the Light -  
  
Sure enough, Egwene was pulling the seven-striped shawl around her shoulders, frowning at Moiraine. And through her shock, Moiraine observed that it seemed to fit her. Young al'Vere. Whoever would have guessed the girl would be the leader of the rebelling half of the split Tower?  
  
In any case . . . Taking a gamble, Moiriane let the Mask of Mirrors drop. It was straining to hold it for so long, anyway.  
  
"Moiraine!" Egwene gasped, starting up out of her chair. "Light! But - but you're - "  
  
"It's one of the Forsaken, seeking to trick us!" snapped Romanda. The glow of saidar surrounded her suddenly as she leapt to her feet. The other sisters followed suit, openeing themselves to the Source as well.  
  
Moiraine came close to a smile again. Just like Romanda, jumping to the worst conclusion. But she had to get out of here. It was plain she would not be able to explain in time.  
  
She wove Air and Spirit to bend the light, and suddenly she was invisible to their eyes. As they cried out in surprise and alarm, she pushed the door open against the wall with a loud bang to make them think she had gone out, and quietly slipped up the stairs. Where was that boy?  
  
She crept down finely carpeted halls, marveling at the luxury. Almost as fine as the White Tower except - but smaller, of course. As quickly as she could, she wove her Mask again. It would not do for others to see her before she could talk to Rand.  
  
She quickened her pace, growing impatient. She had to find him. Her only fear was that the young man would be so hard, so cold and paranoid, that he would kill her when he sensed her channeling.  
  
She must not let that happen. She had come too far.  
  
She rounded a corner - and ran right into Rand.  
  
He frowned. "Who - " He started back suddenly, and she knew he had sensed her channeling. She turned to run, but he snared her with invisible weaves of saidin - she shuddered - and snapped a shield between her and the Source.  
  
His eyes widened. "Moiraine!?"  
  
Ah. Her Mask of Mirrors had fallen, now that she could not maintain the weaves.  
  
"Rand, I - " She frowned. He was different. Lighter. More boyish, with more laughter about him. And his eyes! Light!  
  
They were clear grey-blue as they had always been, but the ice in them had melted. They were as carefree, innocent, and caring as they had been when she found him in his village.  
  
She could only open and close her mouth in amazement. Light, if Siuan Sanche saw me now, she would most definitely call me a fish. Rand was staring at her as well.  
  
"I thought you had died in there!" He had released the weaves around her and she relaxed unconsciously. "Rand, you've - you're - "  
  
He grinned at her. It made an amazing transformation of his face - one would find it hard to believe that he was the Dragon Reborn, who was higher than kings and queens, who conquered and killed. "Blame Sorilea and Cadsuane. They planned this between them - locked me up and worked on me day and night until all the hard edges were filed away. It took almost a year - with everybody wondering where the Dragon Reborn had disappeared to." He released the shield on her, and the invisible Air, and stepped back to make a mock bow. "What do you think?"  
  
"You - I - you've - "  
  
"Moiriane Damodred, at a loss for words," Rand laughed. "It must be good."  
  
Moiraine smiled helplessly back at him. "Rand, this is wonderful. You look wonderful."  
  
"Be that as it may," he grinned. "But you. Moiraine, what happened in that ter'angreal? If you survived, why didn't you come back right away?"  
  
"I have my reasons," she told him.  
  
"I will respect that, then," he sighed. There was no sarcasm in his tone, only resignation. She had only a few seconds to marvel at the change in him when he spoke again. "Just now I have a meeting with Aes Sedai to go to."  
  
"Salidar emissaries?"  
  
"Yes. Can you bend light so - "  
  
She responded by opening herself to saidar and making herself invisible right there.  
  
"I see. Why don't you come, make yourself hidden, and watch? Then you'll know what is going on."  
  
She was fairly sure she already knew, but who would pass up an opportunity like this?  
  
She followed Rand down the hall.  
  
* * *  
  
The chair Rand sat in was magnificent - all encrusted with gold and gems, covered with glittering dragons. He had told her it was called the Dragon Throne, and she could see why.  
  
Moiraine herself was hidden behind inverted weaves of saidar, just beside Rand.  
  
An Aiel woman entered the throne room with her veil around her throat. "Car'a'carn, the Aes Sedai are here to see her."  
  
"Send them in, Lissune." Rand sat back and waited.  
  
A few seconds later, three Aes Sedai swept in, eyeing Rand cautiously as if unsure what to expect. They had the air of having done this before, with less-than-satisfactory results. "The Light shine on you, Lord Dragon."  
  
"And on you, Aes Sedai," Rand reponded. "What have you to say to me?"  
  
"I am Acatha Sedai," said the first, a slight, slim young woman who looked as if she had just been raised to the shawl. "These are my sisters, Renole and Jiela Sedai." The two she named curtsied as they were introduced; Renole Sedai with a graceful, sweeping curtsy that looked to be brought straight from a royal palace; Jiela Sedai with one so deep she nearly brushed the floor with her face.  
  
Acatha Sedai was continuing. "We come to tell you that you have the complete support of the Little Tower Aes Sedai - we will follow you where you call, and guard your life with our own."  
  
"I thank you, Acatha Sedai," Rand said softly. Moiraine was surprised at the respect in his voice. And he had used the honorary Sedai.  
  
The three women blinked. They had clearly not expected to be so well received. 


End file.
